There’s an unemployment crisis in this country. And people are angry. For many families — lucky families — it’s invisible, happening in some far-off place, to some other family. For me, it’s very personal. It’s an ordeal that has stretched on for nearly two… Read More

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Anonymous

Well, There is your problem. Look at your attitude and work history.

Even then with a certain amount of creativity and a good idea and half the skills you believe yourself to have you should be able to create your own job instead of waiting around for someone else to offer you one.

Michigan’s passage of the Right to Work Laws has nothing to do with your current situation

Anonymous

Agreed. Given Peggy Schaffer’s communication skills as evidenced by this column she wrote for the BDN she should have no trouble getting or creating her own job. Sometimes you lose the opportunity if your world view unwittingly spills over during the job interview.

Anonymous

You beat me to the attitude thing. I had that nailed half way through the piece. I wouldn’t hire her for any reason.

Maybe she should get a job at McDonalds or as a clerk at a conveinance store and after a couple of years she might learn something about customer service and humility.

Anonymous

It has everything to do with it! Repubs are declaring war on the working man all across the country. Why do you think they were booted in Maine?

Anonymous

She hasn’t had a job for over two years. Michigan passed the Right to Work laws earlier this week. Her attitude has more to do with her predicament than any other single factor in my opinion.

3rd rail

Defined ‘create your own job’ if you will.

Thank you.

__________________ There but for the grace of God __________________
You can say this to refer to someone who has fallen on hard times.

(it implies that the person is no less virtuous than you are but is now miserable which might happen to you as well)

Anonymous

You make it sound as if I haven’t been there.

Anonymous

Minus the comments about the unions, I could have written that piece word for word. The employment picture is ugly and getting uglier. The level of frustration, anger, and desperation is real, and at an all time high.

Anonymous

But evidenced by a lower unemployment rate things are getting better, right?
During the recent presidential campaign there are those that told us it was true.

Anonymous

During the recent election cycle, a lot of people said a lot of things…..precious little of any of it was true.

Yes, the “real” un-employment number and the government un-employment number are at odds (they always have been.) Though one can only estimate as to the “real” number. 10%, 15%?

Point is, some areas are better off than others. Those in the better insulated areas are more likely to project and underestimate the problem and those in the devastated areas are more likely to project and exaggerate the problem. I’m of the belief that it’s not as good as the government says and not as bad as the chicken little set says.

Yeah…the union stuff and the mattresses that give you bedsores (mattresses don’t create bedsores) line was laying it on a bit thick as well.

Anonymous

Ms. Schaffer speaks for 8% of the workforce. What about the 92% that don’t like, support, or want to be in a union?

Unions have outlived their use. Just look at the violence and vandalism being perpetrated by the union thugs in Michigan. And look at the greed and demands of the unions in the auto industry that Obama bailed out (and the bailout was for the unions, not the car companies).

And one last thing, Ms. Schaffer: If you have so many professional skills and contacts, then maybe you’ve fooled yourself or don’t really have the necessary contacts to get you a job that fits your elite status. Your problem may not be the employment possibilities as much as it might be the person that stares back at you in your mirror.

Humility might be the pill you need to swallow. Wash some dishes or flip some burgers for a while. Try cleaning bathrooms or working for Waste Management. There’s work out there, if you really want it.

Anonymous

Thank you for making some good points for unions! Good Job!

Anonymous

because on isn’t a union member NOW doesn’t mean one 1. has NEVER been a union member. or 2. doesn’t support the value of unions.THINK

Anonymous

This woman could go into business by running her own Democrat factory. She could be the prototype model from which all new units are produced, and she would probably never run out of government contracts to fulfill. The employees could partake of free whine and cheese during their many union-mandated breaks.

Anonymous

Maybe. If she did though, she would walk in the front door, unlike the Tea Party infiltrating the Republicans by sneaking in the back and refusing to admit they were Tea Party.

Anonymous

I don’t in any way think that this woman has it easy. I do feel bad for her, because it is very difficult and frustrating to be without a job. It’s hard to feel too sorry for someone with such an attitude, however. She writes like she feels that everyone should have the world handed to them on a silver platter.
When things are tough, you just have to make the best of the situation with what you are able to do. I have been disabled since 1989, and I haven’t been able to work a regular job since 1998. My wife and I wanted to home school our kids, so she got a part-time job, and I started a home business. We didn’t like the business, so we sold it at a profit. Now my wife has her own home business, and she and I share another home business. We’ve been able to make ends meet, and have been able to home school all our kids. We just put our lives in God’s hands, and do the best we can.

Anonymous

God bless you and your family.

Anonymous

Well said, Peggy. Good luck in your job search.

Anonymous

Do not worry there will be plenty of jobs soon, but the extreme right has to first finish their job of destroying unions and strangling the government then anyone needing a job will be able to go out and get three, four or even five $7/hr – 19 hours/week McJobs with NO vacation and NO bennies. Imagine how well off we’ll all be.
FYI: learn to live on rice and tea because much like China it will be.

Eric Jackson

Unions are destroying themselves. The expectation for the least possible effort for the maximum possible reward can not hold up. If the unions also preached work ethics and accepted that some workers actually do need to be fired they would have a shot at survival and respectability.

Anonymous

If only unions could understand that jobs will exist once all Americans get used to 3rd world wages, no benefits, and no social safety net–the Republican dream.

Anonymous

If only labor were still in demand the way it was decades ago; if only American labor didn’t have to compete with foreign labor.

Eric Jackson

Wrong. Skilled labor will command good wages. If companies can make money off someones skills they will pay to retain them. FYI – floor sweeping, philosophy, and being a politicians gopher isn’t skilled labor. If you aim low with your ambition, you will attain the minimum.

Anonymous

Millions of people have lousy jobs, not because they “aimed low with their ambition” but because they can’t find any other work, or have an IQ well below average, or are disabled, or some combination. They must be paid a living wage–which these days is well above the legal minimum wage. How else are they to survive?

Anonymous

It says that Peggy has applied for “over 50 jobs” in “two years.” She should know that a successful job search (as well as Maine unemployment law) requires more than 1 job application every two weeks.

3rd rail

That’s the catch 22 to get you off the roles. There are not even enough burger flipping jobs to meet that requirement. And they ain’t hiring someone with that kind of education to begin with, it’s a myth.

We now have 40 somethings moving back in with their parents, unheard of in America’s history.. And if your middle 50’s or early 60’s head to the woods with the 9mm. Your as good as dead !

Anonymous

I am surprised that a seemingly valuable political operative wasn’t simply an over-hire. Can’t the Ds invent a job for such a person, or is there more to it?

How about the frustration of the employed? I get frustrated, while working two jobs, that I have to give up so much of my families income to help support people whining about not having a job. If you’ve been turned down so many times maybe your skill set isn’t as amazing as you believe.

Anonymous

well said— thank you !!!

Anonymous

Peggy- I just watched A Wonderful Life like I do every Christmas and I realized that George Bailey was never born and it is not Bedford Falls these days, it is Pottersville. I would not look for compassion or social conscience from an employer. Greed rules the day in 2012 America. Find a way to distance yourself from it, or prepare to embrace it, those are your choices. Warning, you may feel the need to take a shower after a job interview.